Thanksgiving in Lewiston

We decided to do something different this year for Thanksgiving, and loaded up the family for a fun road trip to my sister Michelle's place in Lewiston ID. It was such a special time with good food and lots of laughs. We were very well cared for and enjoyed every moment there!

A photo diary.....

My kids are ROCK STAR travelers! We could not be more proud of them for their attitudes on the long 7 hour trip! For the most part they got along beautifully. They were amazed at God's creations and enjoyed the waterfalls, the rocks, the rolling wheat fields, and the mighty rivers. They loved seeing the "big choo-choo's" and the windmills, too. It was neat to see them explore the world around them. We did bring a DVD player along, but they only watched a total of one hour of "shows". It was great!

Evelyn doing a "Happy Dance" when we got to Aunt Michelle's!

Matthew.. he just wanted to play with his new trucks from Dino, my sister's boyfriend!

Look what my awesome sis found for me.... PERFECT (and yummy, too!)!!

Heading to the park with their aunt after the long drive. Good to get some wiggles out! My kids L.O.V.E. their aunt... and were so excited to see her!

Air mattress silliness!

Evelyn catching air!

I love him.....

Bathtime with Aunt Michelle's uber cool bath toys!!

Doug and Dino watching a car show.. shocker!

Aunt Michelle's bed was the cool place to watch  "kid" shows!

My sister had the menu all planned out for Thanksgiving day and was up early prepping. The house already smelled delicious when we woke up! What a yummy feast we had.. too bad I didn't get more pictures. Sigh..

Turkey-in-a-Bag.... OMGoodness good!!

My sister is pretty creative... love this idea for a meat a cheese tray!

 Um... yes, that is TWO desserts on her plate.. and no, she did NOT share... haha!!

So... my sweet niece Abby was SO excited to see us (and us her!) and left both the kids and Doug and I little notes on our beds to welcome us. We love her... and the kids loved hanging out with their cool cousin!

Abby reading to the kids

Evelyn really wanted to read a book TO Abby!

We all went to bed Thursday happy and thankful! Sadly Matthew woke up Friday not feeling great at all. He has had a cold for a while but I think he got worse while we were there. Thankfully he slept good at night and even took THREE hour naps when we were there.. he never does that! Poor buddy.. at least he wasn't too grumpy and usually perked up by the afternoon!

Sad little man..... you can't see the runny nose or the dried snot on his face, tho!

Evelyn's "Day after Thanksgiving" shirt! She was SO excited to wear it!

Doug put Michelle's Christmas lights up... with a little help!!

My sweet little people...

Aunt Michelle raked a big pile of leaves for the kids to play in.

She jumped a lot on this trip.... haha!

Lewiston puts on a huge and beautiful Christmas light display in their city park each year. It was SO fun to take the kids and ring in the season with my sister!!

Pictures really don't do it justice.. it was so pretty!!

Yes... those are my kids... running to the lights!! This was the best part of their trip I think!!

Love these faces!

Abby ringing the bell...

My bell ringers... love their faces! Determination!!!

My sweet igloo kids...

There is a huge fireplace in the middle of the park and there were volunteers giving out free hot chocolate. We warmed up for a bit by the fire. The lights around it were blue.. kinda made the pictures look cool!

After the lights we headed over to my uncle Scott's parents house. We love "Grandma Jean" and "Pops" and it was so fun to see them, too! Scott's sister Renee also was there. We are thankful for them and how they have adopted my sister (and all of us) as their own over the years.

Jean, Virgil, and Renee with my kids.. the kids were sugared up and entertained us all!

We headed home Saturday with happy hearts and full tummies! The kids were a bit more whiny on the drive home, but not bad at all. Going home is always the hardest and seemingly longest trip! But we made it home thankful for our time with my sister. We plan to get over there more often for sure...

 

 We have so much to be thankful for...